No, Francis holds Yao back a lot. Every March/April, he starts stealing all of Yao's rebounding opportunities out of pure jealousy, and puts roofies in his Gatorade bottle whenver he plays Eduardo Najera. Francis also forces Yao to settle for outside jumpers that fall short by farting profusely in the middle of the paint. It happens every Spring.
I don't expect Yoa to get much better than he already is. I am also quite unsure if Yoa will ever beat his stamina problem.
Somehow, I think even if Yao Ming does have a breakout season out you'll find a way to blame and criticize him.
You'd think that, but you'd be wrong, because you're hypersensitive to any criticism of Yao. Or do you actually agree that the bulk of the areas in which Yao needs to imporve his game (mainly his Spring swoon) are directly attributable to Francis? Yippy, all I did was call out a particularly short sighted bit of steve bashing....but you interpret it as some sort of a slam on Yao. It wasn't. I'm really sick of this silly back and forth that always seems to ensue whenever the subject comes up. Can we just agree to disagree and drop this please?
Hahaha. You're funny. Calling me hypersensitive when you are the one that just posted a long, sardonic diatraibe about Francis holding Yao back. What prompted that? As soon as DaDakota posts, you blame him for Francis hating, when clearly he's been a loyal Rockets fan on this board for longer than both you or I. That's not a hypersenstive response? I don't defend Yao nearly as much as you try to bring him down. Most of my posts defending Yao are in direct response to your unrealistic criticisms of him. And since you post a lot more than I do, I'm pretty sure I've missed some. Oh and for the record, I don't think you'll continue to blame Yao even if he steps it up. Somehow you'll make it sound like you've never doubted h im.
Looks like you edited as I was typing. I didn't interpret it as anything... why did you make that long sarcastic speel about it? That's what annoys me. Don't blame me for defending yao when you like to defend someone else just as much or to discredit Yao. You're sick of it? You have no idea how sick of it I am reading it. Listen it annoys me what you are doing. I will drop it as long as you don't take every single opportunity to discredit Yao and say something nice about one of our franchise players every once in a while. Not too hard for you I'm sure. I've asked you before and I'll ask you again, don't call me Yippy. I don't really like that sound of that. And I am sure it's not too difficult for you to just use my initials y.z., or type out my full name.
Yipheng, I'm just not into continuous flagellation of any member of the Rockets. Saying that Steve runs a lousy break is one thing...it's true and its a valid, if somewhat hackneyed observation, saying that he's responsible for Yao's lack of a breakout season, when it is overwhelmingly clear that it is not true (he was able to have long dominating stretches this season then faded late, like last year, which seems to be due, as he has acknowledged, to his stamina) is not valid. So, I call it as I see it; silly hating. And I'm not the only one who feels that way. If you don't think I'm sufficiently full of praise for Yao...I'm sorry. I don't know what to do; I've said positive things about him when he plays well, I've said he's better than Francis; I don't know what my "quota" is but I guess I'm not meeting it. I don't understand why you need to chase me around in particular...there's a lot of mindless Yao haters out there like Juugie & amed who do nothing but bash Yao. Why don't you go bother them?
Don't ya'll love the offseason. Every thread somehow becomes a Steve vs. Yao thread. I agree with SamFisher, why don't we all just agree that we disagree. No matter what points ya'll present and how valid they are, none of us will change our minds. Atleast one thing is for sure: WE ALL LOVE THE ROCKETS.
When the Guards deliberately refuse to pass to an open and awaiting Yao Ming, they are preventing him from deverloping and showing his greatness.
Can you tell me any dominant post players that have played well together with a combo "streetball" guard like francis?
Amare Stoudemire.... AND YES I DISLIKE HIM, but he put up just as good numbers as Yao with as you put it " A STREET BALL PLAYER"
um what? last season with marbury he averaged less numbers than yao his rookie season, i dont see that as dominating. This season after marbury leaves and he has the chance to be the "man" on his team and goes for one of the worst records in the league
And I think your missing the whole point here, I mean dominant post players as in shaq, duncan, and jermaine o'neal. Yao and amare are NOT dominant yet
Yao is not ready, mentally and physically, I don't think his stamina will improve good enough to allow him play 40 mins per game next season, and from his interview, you can tell he is not mentally ready to be a team leader. He knows being a leader, you have to take the reponsiblity to lift yourself and the team to another level, you always will be the first one to take the blame. I am not against trading SF, but I will take the trade only and if only we get a superstar like T-Mac, Kobe, or at least Brand type players in return. I am against trading SF away for bunch of role players. Cause I know if Yao struggles like he did in late season of last two years, we won't have another star can count on like SF did in Denver's game and playoff. Some Yao fans want to force the issue even Yao openly admits he want to play with SF again next season. I can just say you care so much Yao's stats that you even ignore his own opinion. We probably all agree he won't be a legendary center like Dream or Shaq, but he has chance to become a top center like Ewing, Robinson or Morning. So why don't we just be patient and let him develop?
You think that can't happen to Yao and Rox? Remember Yao had chance to prove if he can lead a team when SF got suspended? What happened? We lost miserably to one of the worst records team you just mentioned.
I was just trying to say that your whole point about the way steve plays and how that affects YAO isnt a problem, especially since Yao isnt that caliber of a player yet to be mentioned with shaq duncan etc etc. As for good post players with combo gaurds, you mentioned Shaq...
J. O'Neal? In the same sentence as Shaq and Duncan? eesh... as for your question. combo, streetball guards are a new thing. dominant centers are from another era. Wilt, Russell, Kareem, even Hakeem. In their days there weren't combo street guards. There haven't been that many dominant post players that have had the chance to play with a streetball combo guard, because of the direction of the evolution of the NBA. I think Wilt, Shaq, Kareem, and Hakeem, would suceed with whatever guard they are play with. In that sense I agree with TheFreak. They would just be like "shut up and give me the ball." Meanwhile, neither Yao's play nor his personality is as dominating as the players I've just listed. Therefore he will not be at his best with a combo guard that needs the ball in his hands. In that sense DaDakota is absolutely right. Hence if we could trade Francis for TMac, Brand, or Allen we should. Because that's just the utility maximizing strategy for all parties involved. There's absolutely no reason not to pull the trigger for any of those three players.
How pure was guys like calvin murphy, Magic, and Isiah? There has been plenty of shoot first PG. And guys like pistol pete have done plenty of flashy stuff during games. And if you look at it this year, how much has Steve played "streetball"? I still say move Francis if the right deal comes along, but I can't stand the people who said Steve is holding Yao back. Yao showed plenty of potential of greatness, but how many ppl are saying Finley was holding Nowitzki back, or Webber was holding Stojavich back? A lot of good foreign players took time to develope, I think that the ones that actually developed well have talented teamates around them to take the pressure off. I see the same situation here.
